De La Salle routs Bellarmine 41-7

In a rematch of last season's overtime thriller in Concord, young Bellarmine College Prep fell behind early in its season opener Friday night against De La Salle and never recovered, losing 41-7 to an opponent that looked every bit like the third-ranked team in the country.

The Bells had hoped to control the ball to keep De La Salle's array of playmakers on the bench. But they instead struggled mightily to convert first downs against a fast and ferocious defense, and the result at San Jose City College was precisely what Bellarmine coach Mike Janda feared.

Tiapepe Vitale and Co. ran wild against a team that returned only two starters from last season's Central Coast Section Open Division champion.

And when De La Salle was not running through massive holes, new Spartans quarterback Chris Williams was making the most of his limited passing opportunities. He threw five times, completing three, for 109 yards.

But the player that gave Bellarmine the most fits was Vitale, who rushed for 153 of his 181 yards in the first half as the Spartans cruised to a 35-7 cushion.

The 5-foot-11, 203-pound senior had only one rushing attempt after halftime and finished with three touchdowns, including a 79-yard sprint for the first score of the night.

"We tell them we've got to learn," Janda said after meeting with his players. "We've got a lot to learn. We're young. We're inexperienced, and we've got to take any positives that came out of the game and try to use them in the next ballgame and the future."

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When Bellarmine finally scored, on a picturesque 55-yard pass from K.J. Carta-Samuels to Jared Vallner late in the second quarter, the touchdown cut De La Salle's advantage to 28-7.

But with a little more than three minutes remaining before halftime, De La Salle marched down the field again as Williams finished the drive with a 2-yard run.

The outcome was dramatically different from a year earlier, when senior-laden Bellarmine came within a missed extra-point in overtime of becoming the first Northern California team since 1991 to defeat De La Salle.

"That team is in a rebuilding period," De La Salle coach Bob Ladouceur said after the game Friday. "I kind of keep it in perspective. When you graduate 19 starters, you kind of got to take a step back and rebuild a little bit."

It was clear from the start that Bellarmine, ranked No. 2 in the Mercury News top 10, was going to have trouble executing its game plan. The Bells went three-and-out on their first series, and two plays later they were chasing Vitale on his way to the end zone.

Bellarmine had a shot to even the score when it recovered a fumble at the De La Salle 21. But the Bells lost three yards in four plays.

It only got worse from there for Bellarmine.

"Their defense is fantastic," Janda said. "They really have a tremendous defense, and it was very difficult to move the ball any way. We've got to give them all the credit.

"But, again, we've got a lot of young players who are getting a baptism by fire here, and they happened to do it against one of the best teams in the country."

Carta-Samuels had never taken a varsity step before Friday but had De La Salle's attention after he made an oral commitment this summer to Vanderbilt. The junior finished 7 of 12 passing for 116 yards, throwing for the one touchdown. He also had an interception.

"They just really outperformed us tonight," Carta-Samuels said. "We tried to prepare as well as we could, but it wasn't enough tonight. It was a tough one. But we'll hit the ground running on Monday, and I hope that we can go into league with a different attitude and perform well."